Every once in a while I get a custom doll order that gets me even more excited than usual.

When a mom contacted me about making Laura and Mary Ingalls dolls for her little sweetie's birthday, I couldn't wait to get started! As a little girl, I loved the show Little House on the Prairie, and even more close to my heart are the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I started with red calico and brown braids for Laura and blue calico and blonde braids for Mary.

Another essential piece was going to be the bonnets. I made these from some really pretty Liberty of London-esque vintage cloth napkins.

I modified the bonnet from a vintage Holly Hobbie doll pattern to fit these dolls. Isn't this sweet?

The dolls also needed some little white pinafore aprons over their prairie dresses, and then faces painted. Laura with violet eyes and Mary with soft blue.

Here they are completed and in their bonnets.

And here they are in their special winter cloaks, a sweet extra my brilliant customer added on.

I enjoyed this project so much and was so inspired by it that I've decided to reread the Little House books this summer, starting with this one:

If you are interested in a custom made doll of your favorite book character, click here for doll options, and here for costume and outfit extras.

I recently made a pair of biracial dolls with natural hair for a beautiful set of siblings from Chicago. It was so fun to make the little costumes for the dolls too. And I really love how the curls framing the little girl's face turned out!

Biracial dolls with natural hair by Hen and Chick

I also made a special customized art doll for a sweet little girl who was adopted from Ethiopia. Her mom told me she was so excited to have a doll to look like her!

African American custom made doll by Hen and Chick

A few others from this month:

Custom made cloth doll by Hen and Chick

Handmade rag doll by Hen and Chick

I'm also working on some new designs of some little kitty dolls, so keep your eyes put for those!

Above: Sweet doll family (complete with tiny dog!). Below: A Carnival Birthday doll.I'm currently working on a set of 5 dolls, each with extra clothes, pajamas, and stuffed animals! Watch for those here on the blog soon.